


Welcome to the Party, Pal

by stranger_thanfiction



Series: Stranger Things 30 Day Challenge [9]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Fluff, Post-Season/Series 03, erica is the coolest, i love the party ok, i really want erica to be friends with max, ok, they're a great group of kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-24
Updated: 2019-07-24
Packaged: 2020-07-12 12:17:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19946044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stranger_thanfiction/pseuds/stranger_thanfiction
Summary: Erica Sinclair considered herself to be perfectly normal, thank you very much. At ten years old, she’s the most popular girl in her class, mainly because she has three more friends than Kathy Rae.





	Welcome to the Party, Pal

**Author's Note:**

> Today's prompt from hey-dingus's tumblr 30 Day ST Challenge is Coolest Character, and no one is cooler than the future HBIC herself, Erica Sinclair. She's a clear mall rat with killer fashion sense and a sharp tongue that would put Regina George to shame. (and yes, the title is from Die Hard because, why not?)  
> It seems stupid, but Erica was actually quite difficult to write. She's actually mature for her age and immature at the same time, and writing her as both often created contradictions that I didn't care for. If she's stilted or OOC, I do apologize.   
> Also, female friendships keep the world spinning, so of course I made Mad Max a part of this...she's gonna show up a lot in the next two weeks.   
> As always, comments and kudos are the best writing fuel, and if you have concerns, questions, or Opinions, you can always yell at me on tumblr @modernfeminismtalking. Enjoy!

Erica Sinclair considered herself to be perfectly normal, thank you very much. At ten years old, she’s the most popular girl in her class, mainly because she has three more friends than Kathy Rae. 

She’s smart enough that she could help people with their math homework, if she wanted to, yet mean enough that most people are nice to her. 

It’s better like that. This way, no one has to find out that she likes fantasy stories and puzzles. 

Erica is not a nerd like her brother Lucas and his dorky friends. She still doesn’t understand how he got such a cool girlfriend like that, but Max can sometimes be weird like them, so it’s not that crazy.

Because she’s so liked, Erica’s schedule is booked solid. Between lunches with Monica and Stacey, playdates with Josie, and Wednesday night summer sleepovers at Tina’s, she can’t be bothered to help out her brother’s weird friend and the even weirder teens who work at Scoops. 

She’s supposed to be at Tina’s house by now, but she knows her girl will cover for her as she listens to the three older kids. 

Dustin keeps going on and on about Russians and secret tunnels and being a hero, but Erica cares more about her free ice cream than any game he’s playing.

Lucas’ friends tend to be a little dramatic, so it’s not a surprise that the boy in the hat is screeching at her over his milkshake. 

“Don’t you love America?”

Erica raises her eyebrows. 

“You can’t spell America without Erica,” she retorts back. 

He dumbly sits back, thinking over the fact that technically, she’s right.

The three have become desperate, so Erica lists her demand: free ice cream for life. 

The Scoops workers look at each other, and quickly agree. 

Suckers. 

Before Erica knows it, she is climbing into the vents in the mall. 

She feels like she’s a superhero in an action movie.

When she reaches the room at the end of the vents, she throws down her My Little Pony bag before throwing herself down, then opening the large doors.

Piece of cake. 

The three others enter, and they begin to search the boxes. They make it about five minutes before the floor drops. 

Okay, so this wasn’t a piece of cake, and Erica’s probably not getting her free ice cream for life, because the entire mall is currently on fire.

Erica would never admit it, but she’s sticking close to Lucas until their parents get there. She and Dustin high-tailed it back from Cerebro when they saw the helicopters, and actually made it about a mile before Robin came back to grab them. 

Maybe Robin’s the coolest person she’s ever met, even if she’s a nerd.

She’s got a blanket around her shoulders and is sat next to her brother and his girlfriend, who’s currently sobbing into Lucas’ Karate Kid shirt.

Max’s brother was one of the monsters that ended up attacking everyone in the mall, and he died right before the fire started. 

Erica doesn’t know what to say, so she just stares blankly at the ground, overwhelmed with what she’s seen, until their mother comes frantically running through the crowd of medics and guard members, her father trailing behind.

“Oh my goodness, my baby!” Gloria Sinclair cries, running towards Erica and enveloping her in a hug.

“Are you hurt? Are you scared?”

Erica shakes her head and hugs her mom back.

She’s not too cool to hug her mom after spending over a day in an underground Russian lab.

Her mom, frantic with worry, asks both her and Lucas why they weren’t at the Fun Fair like they were supposed to be. 

Erica opened her mouth, but Lucas quickly cut her off.

“She was with my friends and I. We were going to see Back to the Future, but then Dustin got lost trying to find a bathroom. He didn’t come back from when he left about halfway through the movie, so we all looking for him afterwards.”

Gloria raises her eyebrows at her daughter, a renowned troublemaker, and she nods her head aggressively.

James looks unconvinced. 

“And how did you end up in the middle of a fire when the movie ended two hours ago?”

Lucas pretends to look sheepish and rubs the back of his neck.

“Well, it turns out that Starcourt is a lot larger than we thought it was. We ended up splitting into groups to look for him, and before we knew it, Hot Dog on A Stick and Orange Julius were on fire.”

“And the Harrington boy? And Nancy and Jonathan?”

Max pipes up, wiping the tears off her eyes. 

“Nancy and Jonathan were watching us so we would be supervised. Mrs. Byers was on a day business trip, something about a house in Muncie, and she didn’t want Will out too late without supervision. Steve was at work at Scoops and started helping us look because he knows Dustin from babysitting him as a kid,” she lies through her teeth. 

Gloria and James look at each other. Their kids aren’t exactly angels, but they’ve known Dustin since the boy and his mother moved to Hawkins when he was in second grade. It’s not that far fetched that he would get lost trying to find a bathroom. 

Either way, the kids get stuck in the craziest stuff all the time. 

They should maybe have a family meeting about that. 

Lucas moves away from his girlfriend to talk to their parents, pushing the limit by asking to stay with Max. Both parents immediately say no, but then reconsider when he tells them about Billy. 

Instead of allowing him to go off with her, they invite Max to come stay with them tonight. Max initially refuses, but after Susan and Neil don’t show, she quietly agrees. 

Erica’s just happy she can go sleep in her own bed.

She bears through the ride home of Lucas and Max holding hands and whispering to each other, rolling her quietly.

So gross. 

The Sinclairs and Max finally reach their home, and Erica darts out of the car, calling the bathroom so she can shower first.

She’s got about two days of Russian grime on her that she needs to scrub off. 

Erica exits the shower and changes into a t shirt and shorts before running downstairs.

Max is awkwardly sitting on the loveseat with her mom, who’s gently speaking to the young girl. Her dad and Lucas are nowhere to be found. 

Erica can’t hear what they’re saying, but she doesn’t really care at this point either, her rumbling stomach interrupting her snooping.

She pads to the kitchen and grabs a bag of chips, and carefully eats them so her mom doesn’t catch her snacking.

Gloria doesn’t know that she hasn’t eaten in days, and Erica wants to keep it that way.

She’s snacking in the kitchen when Lucas walks in, flushed as red as he can be and unaware of her presence. He looks lost in his own head until she crunches a chip loudly. His head whips to her.

“Are you trying to die?” he whispers, motioning to the bag.

She shrugs and offers it over.

“It’s either Mom kills me or the hunger does. The hunger is movin’ faster right now.”

She takes another mouthful of chips. 

“Why’re you all red?”

His cheeks go impossibly darker. 

“Dad tried to talk to me about something, it’s not important. They said Max is staying with you tonight.”

Erica’s eyes narrow.

“Why do I have to stay with your girlfriend? You and your weirdo friends have sleepovers all the time, why is this any different?” she questions, shoveling in more potato chips.

Lucas grabs one as he shrugs.

“It just is. What, are you afraid she’s gonna see your Never-Ending Story poster?”

She, too, flushes and whips the bag at her brother.

“No! And if you tell, I’ll tell Mom and Dad what really happened tonight!”

Lucas’ face grows serious. 

“Erica,” he begins sternly, “I’m not joking, you can’t tell anyone, not even Tina what happened tonight. We could get into serious trouble, and not just with Mom and Dad. I’m talking national security, take this to your grave kind of thing.”

“How do you know?” she asks suspiciously, “does it have something to do with Mike’s little girlfriend flipping a car with her mind?”

Lucas grows more panicked. 

“Erica, seriously, you can’t tell anyone. They’ll take El away, they’ll take Will away, and if they’re in a certain mood, they could take the rest of us, too, and shut us up for good.”

He makes a slitting throat motion with his finger, and suddenly Erica isn’t hungry, anymore.

She puts away the bag of chips and heads back into the living room. Max is still uncomfortably sitting on the couch, and Erica rolls her eyes. 

“We’re sleeping down here,” she says bluntly, snapping Max out of whatever daze she’s in.

“Unless you wanna sleep on my floor, in a sleeping bag.”

Max shakes her head. 

“No, sleeping down here is good.”

Erica heads upstairs to grab blankets and pillows from her room and from the closet near the bathroom. 

She subtly kicks the door to her bedroom shut. Max doesn’t need to know about her Never-Ending Story poster. 

Erica, upper body hidden under the blankets and pillows, returns to the living room.

“You know, you could always just go ask Lucas, quickly, for a change of clothes. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind,” she slyly mentions to Max, who takes the hint and darts up the stairs.

Yeah, even though Max can skateboard, Erica is still the coolest.

Erica finishes setting up the living room, and nearly passes out waiting for Max to come back down.

Max shuffles back down a bit later, freckled cheeks bright pink, dressed in a smaller pair of Lucas’ sweats and one of his more worn t-shirts.

“Not a word,” she mutters to Erica, who closes her mouth and grins.

Erica flips out the lights, and the two girls quickly fall asleep, exhausted from saving the world. 

Max goes home the next morning, but she is back nearly every day for the next couple of weeks. 

This violates Mom’s house arrest rules on both her and Lucas, because technically they both broke their curfew and lied about where they were, but her parents don’t say anything about it. 

Erica doesn’t really know why she’s allowed over; she overheard her mom saying something about someone named Neil being mean, but she likes having Max over too much to care.

She actually likes Max. 

Erica will never admit it, but Max is the coolest person she’s ever met. 

She’s helping Erica learn how to skateboard, and she even listens to Erica talk about My Little Pony. 

When Lucas and Erica are finally allowed out of the house, which feels like years later but actually two weeks, Max convinces Lucas to take Erica to Mike’s, ignoring Lucas’ screams of protest and eventual disgruntled acceptance, and the three girls often sit in the basement with the boys as they play their weird game.

Mike threw a fit the first time it happened, with Lucas backing him up, but Dustin and the girls insisted that she stay because “she’s one of us now, idiots.” 

Erica Sinclair is most decidedly not a loser like them, but she’s been grounded for a while and misses people. 

Max and El don’t actually play Dungeons and Dragons with the boys, but they tell Erica they too have roles within the game.

“El’s our mage, and I’m the zoomer,” Max grins at Erica over a popsicle.

“You’re actually our rogue,” Will yells from the other side of the basement, grin on his face because _ he’s finally playing D&D. _

“So, you’re saying these characters are like your personality? Like one of those tests in  _ Tiger Beat _ ?” Erica asks loudly, looking down at her nails.

El nods eagerly, understanding because she and Max had just taken a  _ What Type of Kisser Are You?  _ Quiz during their last sleepover. 

“It’s about how you fight, who you are, and what you value,” she smiles at Erica, popsicle beginning to melt in her hand. 

Erica looks over at the boys, who’ve started yelling because “Will rolled an eleven!”, whatever that means. 

“So...what’s my role?”

The girls looked at each other and shrugged. El calls Mike over and asks. The tall boy takes a look at her and makes a face, then calls Will over. 

Will, frustrated that the campaign is being paused for girly talk,  _ again _ , marches over to be asked the same question. 

Will examines her and tilts his head before going back to the board to see if Mike has any of their old books. 

Dustin comes over, and immediately has an idea.

“She could be our academic, she’s smart as a whip.”

Erica punches him on the shoulder but doesn’t disagree.

Lucas does. 

“No, no, she’s more like a knight, the ground offense.”

And so the two go off, arguing about which of her traits are the strongest while the rest of the group shake their heads. 

Will, in the meantime, has found the book, and is patiently flipping through it despite the chaos behind him. 

One title catches his eye, and he walks over to show it to Erica, who looks at its stats before nodding in agreement. 

Will clears his throat. 

No one stops.

Will clears his throat again.

No one stops. 

“Um, excuse me?” Erica shrieks, and everyone turns to look at her.

“He was trying to talk to you.”

The rest of the party just stares at him, all silently saying Well?, and he responds. 

“Attention, gentlemen....and ladies, we have found a title for our newest recruit.”

“Uh excuse me I didn’t sign-”

“PleAse,” Will’s voice cracks and he clears his throat, “allow me to introduce, the first of her name, Ms. Erica Sinclair, our merchant.”

The group cheers. Mike and Lucas smack themselves, muttering “why didn’t I think of that?” and Dustin’s claiming it’s perfect, retelling the story of her now lost Free Ice Cream For Life. 

“Welcome to the party, pal,” he cheers.

Erica Sinclair may be too cool for these nerds, but is cool to be with people who understand.

“This doesn’t mean I have to play your dumbass game, right?”

_ “Erica!”  _


End file.
